Southampton conference inspires the e-assessment revolution

Published: 12 July 2010

A conference which will propose structures for the widespread adoption of e-assessment in education will take place at the University of Southampton next week.

The 2010 International Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) Conference: Research into e-Assessment, to be held on 20 and 21 July, is a two-day research-led event hosted by the University of Southampton and organised by its School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) with the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at the Open University. The Conference aims to advance the understanding and application of information technology to the assessment process (e-assessment) through rigorous peer-reviewed research.

According to conference organiser Lester Gilbert of the ECS Learning Societies Lab, it is generally accepted that e-assessment fits the student mindset much better than setting three-hour exams, and the challenge now is to have adaptive e-assessment which provides prompt feedback to students so that they can learn more effectively.

Therefore, the key theme of this year’s conference focuses on new ways to enhance student learning through e-assessment, and will address topics such as using student contributions to online discussions as assessment tools; the key obstacles to widespread adoption of e-assessment in higher education across the UK, and effective ways to mitigate the emerging threat of remotely administered online exams being compromised by identity fraud.

The keynote address will be delivered by Dr Paul Brna, Educational Consultant, who will focus on the importance of using e-assessment to provide feedback to learners and to make it a major part of personalised learning.

“Students want more and more feedback,” said Denise Whitelock, IET, CAA Conference Chair. “Therefore we want to make assessment more bespoke so that academics are more focused and effective and all students get some level of feedback. When students get feedback, they become more reflective learners.”